Cato Networks Virtual Socket

In construction, we have a company in the steel industries, where we are doing the POCs currently, and we have one exchange, Al-Jabr Exchange. We have a few others lined up, but currently, we manage this construction group.

Basically, we are providing the solutions for industries, such as the manufacturing industry, construction group, and a money exchange group. Additionally, we have another customer lined up, which is RPM, a rapid response team in the medical field.

My relationship with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform  vendor is as a partner.

The Cato SASE Cloud Platform  supports my customers' needs for connectivity and security by removing the throttling from the headquarters and putting a firewall in the cloud, instead of having to use a costly MPLS network to perform security inspection on all traffic from various branches. Now, with Cato SASE  Cloud Platform solutions, branches no longer need to go to headquarters for inspection; they are picked up from the cloud, which increases efficiency and protection.

The most useful security feature of Cato SASE  Cloud Platform for my customers is the Firewall as a Service (FaaS), which provides a single firewall solution that scales regardless of the size of the enterprise.

Cato's global SD-WAN capability impacts network performance positively by partnering with global tier-one networks, which increases efficiency, guarantees SLAs, improves speed, and reduces packet losses, making it a more efficient solution compared to traditional IPsec.

I don't see any areas of improvement for Cato SASE Cloud Platform since they have all their solutions in-house and implement suggestions rapidly, providing a continuous improvement process without any current challenges.

Having worked with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform solution for eight months and previously as a TAC engineer with Palo Alto and Cisco, I don't see any room for improvement as they provide everything we need for a SASE solution.

I don't have anything to mention regarding improvements at the moment, but I can contact you in a few months for any further observations as I continue to explore the solution.

I have been working with the Cato SASE Cloud Platform for eight months.

The deployment time is indeed quick, taking just two hours, and I have faced no significant challenges with Cato SASE Cloud Platform during this time; it has been easy to use.

Stability shows no complaints on my end.

The setup is straightforward from one to ten, and my customers are using it mainly in public clouds. For scalability, I would rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform as perfect.

Support is rated at eight out of ten.

Positive

The SD-WAN functionality improves network connectivity by optimizing traffic and reducing latency, which can lead to a return on investment with cost savings. Specifically, it replaces costly MPLS links with SD-WAN and utilizes an internet-based backbone with intelligent routing, resulting in a cost reduction of 40% to 60%.

The pricing is reasonable and depends on the usage.

I am also a partner with Cato SASE Cloud Platform.

Mentioning the bypassing feature and traffic engineering would be fine.

Currently, I find no need for any small improvements for Cato SASE Cloud Platform, but I have noticed that they implement suggestions rapidly, and although I'm not facing challenges now, I could think of potential additional features in the future, such as improvements in DHCP IP release functionality, which I have already requested.

To summarize, I recommend this solution for medium to enterprise-sized businesses. I am Mr. Anas Abdul Rauf, working for FSD Innovative Technologies as a network security engineer, and I hold a CCIE certification. I am set to work on FishOS  as the first authorized partner in the GCC region, enabling me to provide further reviews after some months.

I rate the Cato SASE Cloud Platform a 10 out of 10.

I use Cato SASE Cloud Platform  primarily as a single vendor, integrated SD-WAN plus SASE  solution.

All features are toggle switches on the platform, making it easy to turn them on and off. It integrates with AI systems, and the dashboard provides insights into faults through an XDR  platform. It offers network and security event workbenches, AI history, and summaries of faults. It is scalable for end users across network and cloud sides and saves operational costs.

The platform lacks strong security features on the edge. All security features are on the cloud. For someone who wants to break out traffic locally from the LAN, there are only basic firewalls included. I would like to see more robust edge security features to replace existing customer on-premises firewalls.

I have been working with Cato SASE Cloud Platform  for one year.

The solution is highly scalable. As an MSSP , we find it scalable for end users across EPP platforms, network, and cloud sides. It is an ideal option for those looking for a single integrated solution and a refresh from point solutions.

As a partner, I receive very good support from Cato. Their knowledge portal and Cato Academy portal are excellent resources. Features are updated weekly and automatically, which is very convenient.

Positive

I have worked with solutions from Fortinet and Palo Alto. Cato offers a built-in platform perspective with all features integrated into a single platform, unlike competitors who have acquired various components like SD-WAN or CASB  that may run on different platforms.

I was not directly involved in the deployment, but our team has set up five or six customers in the last year. The platform is very easy to deploy.

I've worked closely with Fortinet. I'm aware of Palo Alto and Netskope  but have not seen strong integrated platforms from them.

I rate Cato SASE  Cloud Platform at 9.5 out of 10. There is always room for improvement, especially in edge security features.

We have been using Cato Networks  as a solution for firewall and secure web gateway.

It's provided us the solution for firewall and secure web gateway.

The main features we use are the firewall and secure web gateway.

There isn't much to improve as we have a close relationship with them, providing information for research and development. We cannot disclose further details due to a nondisclosure agreement.

We have been working with Cato Networks  for two years now.

I would rate the stability of the solution as ten on a scale of one to ten.

We chose Cato Networks due to its scalability and ability to expand the network.

Our customer service experience is excellent, however, this might be due to our special partnership with them.

Positive

We did a lot of evaluations. Most competitors didn't meet our needs due to pricing and functionality.

The initial setup was done in-house and was simple.

The setup was handled in-house, without the need for consultants.

I would rate the pricing as seven out of ten. The pricing is flexible due to our special partnership with Cato Networks.

We compared it with competitors like Versa and Prisma.

I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily use the platform for monitoring purposes. It serves as a SaaS solution integrated with SD-WAN and security functionalities.

The product's most valuable features include advanced firewall capabilities for robust security, a secure gateway for safe data transmission, and next-generation anti-malware for threat prevention. Additionally, the SASE framework integrates well with our operational needs, ensuring comprehensive security and compliance.

The product's technical support could be more responsive.

I have been using the Cato SASE Cloud Platform for around seven months.

I rate the product stability a nine. 

The product accommodates varying customer requirements effectively, facilitating easy scaling as needed.

I would rate the scalability an eight. 

The technical support services need improvement. 

Positive

The initial setup process was straightforward, taking about one to one and a half hours. It involved minimal complexities, handled efficiently by two individuals, primarily myself.

Based on studies from Forrester, our organization has achieved a significant return on investment of approximately 246% within less than six months of deploying Cato.

The platform is expensive. 

Cato's user-friendly dashboard has contributed positively to our experience, making it suitable for our current operational needs.

Integrating SD-WAN has significantly optimized our network performance by enabling path selection for optimal traffic routing, WAN optimization through protocol acceleration, and seamless traffic encryption without compromising performance.

I rate it an eight. 

We mainly use the Cato SASE Cloud Platform to provide internet and increase reliability. We have two links on each site, which gives us network security through the cloud and unified management from one portal. Any changes we make are automatically applied to the on-site device.

Unified management and internet duplication are our most valuable features. They provide a seamless experience for end users—if one link goes down, they can still work without noticing.

It has improved our efficiency because we don't need to configure individual devices, reducing configuration errors. It also provides additional security. Unlike our previous solution, the solution uses certificates to inspect all traffic, effectively blocking malicious content.

I have been using the product for four years. 

I'd rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. We've never noticed any outages.

The Cato SASE Cloud Platform's scalability is great. You buy the license, and it's ready to go. I'd rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

Everyone in our organization uses it because it's our main gateway to the Internet. As for management, it's mainly me, as the IT manager, configuring it, with two IT specialists occasionally helping with smaller tasks.

We reach out to the support occasionally for minor problems. They're pretty quick, but if an issue needs to be escalated to a higher level, it can take two to three days to get a result.

Positive

The setup and onboarding process is very straightforward - I'd rate it a ten out of ten for ease. We use CatoCloud as our cloud provider. They have points of presence, and we connect to the nearest one to our physical location. All the routing, inspection, and logic for what to route, block, or allow happens in the cloud, not on the local device. Our deployment took a couple of weeks because we installed the sites manually.

If we had a team to help switch locally, it could have been done in a week. The deployment process is straightforward. We set up all the sites in their cloud system; then, they ship the sockets directly to the location or our main office. We connect the device to the internet, it gets activated, we assign it to a specific site inside the cloud, and it's online and ready to use. It's very easy.

We deployed in-house; Cato SASE Cloud Platform team members weren't required. Most of the work is done by configuring the portal, and connecting the physical device is very simple.

We haven't noticed any measurable ROI outcomes since implementing the Cato SASE Cloud Platform, but we've seen a significant improvement in our internet reliability. Previously, we had many complaints when the internet went down, as there were disruptions when it didn't switch over immediately. Now, we hardly have any issues or tickets related to this. We either notice problems on time and address them with the carrier, or end users usually don't notice any disruptions due to having two network connections. This has increased overall internet reliability across all our sites.

I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud. We've been working with them for a while and have significant discounts. Our licensing costs vary because we keep adding sites, but it's about 280 per month per site. This includes additional features beyond the base product, starting at around 200.

We tested the product to see if it worked in our environment, as each setup is different. It works well for us because we have many locations, and it helps greatly with managing all of them. It's an easy solution to connect everything instead of manually managing everything. It can suit small and enterprise businesses, but it might work better for businesses with multiple locations. It could even work for a large corporate building, but it needs to be tested thoroughly.

I rate the solution a ten out of ten.